I want to create a C++ application that is to run on some Linux platform on a specific laptop computer. I do however not want the users of this laptop to use any other applications/system features than this program - much like the kiosk modes you would find on computers in a typical internet café.

One issue is that the laptop will be booted by the user, and such has to start my software automatically - leaving as little room as possible for the user to intervene with the process. It does not have to be completely secure, but it should be as close as possible.

What would be the best way to accomplish such a thing? Does there exist (free) Linux distributions specifically made for this (if not, I will probably use Arch Linux)? Are there any steps I could/should take in my program, or can I leave it all to the OS? Would creating my own little Linux distribution specifically for this be worth it?

2 Answers
2

Sabayon is a system administration
tool to define and deploy desktop
profiles for the GNOME desktop
environment. It allows you to control
such things as panel layouts, menu
items, default gconf settings, as well
as provide pre-defined defaults for
some non-GNOME programs such as
Firefox. It also makes use of the
lockdown functionality of Pessulus. It
does this by providing a "desktop
within a window", allowing you to
customize your desktop as you see fit,
then recording your changes, to be
applied to users by the sabayon-apply
program at login time.

This seems to be more oriented towards creating a special desktop for the user, a set GNOME configuration, which is not really what I am looking for. I don't need GNOME at all, really. Still, I'm going to look closer at both the distro and the article, there might be something of use there.
–
OysteinNov 4 '10 at 19:28

That's the same link that harrymc gave :) How is Sabayon's performance on older computers? Can you strip it down to a minimum?
–
OysteinNov 4 '10 at 20:56

Sabayon looks like only an administrative layer over Linux. Linux in general does pretty well on older computers, and there are many installation options for stripping it down. If Ubuntu isn't efficient enough, you may need to pass to one of the minimalist Linux distributions, but that's another headache.
–
harrymcNov 5 '10 at 14:14

You get accepted answer as the link is excellent and really helped
–
OysteinNov 5 '10 at 15:24